EU ‘bent at the knee’ of Trump – White House official

The new trade deal shows the success of the ‘America First’ strategy, according to Sebastian Gorka

The European Union has effectively “bent at the knee” before US President Donald Trump, White House official Sebastian Gorka has claimed, after Brussels accepted a sweeping new trade deal that includes steep tariffs and major investment commitments to the US.

The deal, finalized on Sunday during a meeting between Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, imposes a 15% tariff on most EU exports to the US. In addition, Brussels pledged to invest $600 billion into the US economy and purchase $750 billion worth of American energy over three years. No reciprocal tariffs were imposed on US goods.

Gorka, who serves as senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council, said the agreement marks a geopolitical victory for Washington.

“Even for somebody like me who has known the president for a decade now, it is hard to believe that the whole European Union bent at the knee of America First and said: ‘...You got us, President Trump, and we are going to surrender to a 15% tariff,’” Gorka told Newsmax on Monday.

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“I’ll just be very blunt with you… if you don’t understand that President Trump is engineering tectonic shifts in geopolitics that are of a global effect, that will change the world for the next 50 to 100 years, you are just an imbecile,” he added.

The agreement has been widely criticized across Europe. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said: “Donald Trump ate Ursula von der Leyen for breakfast.”

French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou condemned the deal as a “submission” to US. Marine Le Pen, a prominent opposition leader in France’s National Rally party, called it “a political, economic, and moral fiasco.”

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Italian opposition figures also denounced the deal, despite Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s attempt to present it as a positive development. Giuseppe Conte, head of the Five Star Movement, said, “There is a winner – US President Trump – and a loser, or rather two: The EU and Giorgia Meloni.”

Von der Leyen attempted to defend the deal as “the best we could get,” noting that the compromise averted a looming 30% tariff Trump had threatened to impose.